Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Insider Intel

Something was wrong. It wasn't anything overt or specific that caught her eye but it had been going on for weeks now. It wasn't something she could quantify in words that would make any sort of sense, and "I just have a feeling" isn't seen as an acceptable intelligence source, which is why she hadn't bothered to send out a report.

What was there to say?

Dear Mr. Intelligence Director,

I have a spooky feeling that I cannot shake, I think we should look into it

Sincerely,

Your Friendly GA diplomat

No, no that wasn't something she could do however much she wished she could tell someone about her suspicions.

She was no newbie either, in fact she had been in intelligence work for the better part of twenty years, and before working in arcadia, she had been a case officer for GCI (global central intelligence) on Earth. A lot of people misunderstand the work of an intelligence officer, and who can blame them, spies have been misrepresented in movies since time immemorial.

Even the oldest and most famous media spies, 007, for instance are misrepresented to an incredible degree. Truth be told James Bond wasn't actually a "Spy". The real name for a person like James bond would be a "case officer" the case officer is someone who recruits the actual spies and is the liaison that collects the intel given to them by the people they manage.

It is a case officer's job to recruit spies, and turn members of opposing governments against their employers and convince them to sell secrets. The actual "Spy" is the person a case officer recruits, someone within their own agency who is actively committing treason.

Another misunderstanding a lot of laymen have is the assumption that their own government would never participate in such dirty dealings. People always get up in arms when it comes out that Earth has been spying on Irus or the other way around, but truth be told, good intelligence is collecting on any information that may be relevant to the safety of your own country. Every country with any sort of government does it. There is an unwritten rule in intelligence work that only intel operatives understand.

Everyone is collecting intelligence on everyone else, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter if you are allies or enemies, you better be sure someone is collecting intel on you.

But now, she couldn't help but feel the roles had changed.

Another fact that the public generally gets wrong about the intelligence community, is that foreign governments always know who the case officers are. It isn't a secret, anyone with diplomatic immunity, working a low level job at an embassy is probably a case officer. In fact she had had lunch with plenty of agents from opposing governmental bodies playfully bantering and halfheartedly attempting to turn the other against their own government.

But now the dynamic had changed.

She could feel it.

Something wasn't right. She had been assigned a job on Irus, working directly at the GA headquarters. The rundi were secretive, the charwoman was hard to read, all to the director's annoyance. Coming from a creature that had never known a world with secrets, it was no surprise Director Conn hated them so much.

Despite being allies with the GA, Arcadia was still in the business of collecting as much information as possible, and here she was in the midst of something that was making her feel more and more like a spy and less and less like a case officer.

Again she had no concrete evidence, but things around here weren't adding up.

The day before she had watched two rundi distribute several tiny vials to members of the GA support staff. Had the interaction been done casually, she might not have thought anything of it, but the operation had gone down like a drug deal, behind a little used building late in the evening. The little glances taken over their shoulders and the nervous energy that surrounded them was enough to tell her something was going on